Metal additive manufacturing data processing and process planning are the core of metal additive manufacturing software system

covering metal support design

model slicing and path planning

etc. and determine the product performance of the final metal parts. Starting from the model pre-processing of the metal additive manufacturing

a more comprehensive overview of the related data processing content such as multi-type support design and novel support optimization is summarized. With regard to the model slicing

a critical part of the data processing in metal additive manufacturing

the research progress is reviewed from the aspects of normal slicing

adaptive slicing and surface slicing. The path planning in metal additive manufacturing process is also reviewed. Finally

the development trend of data processing and process planning in metal AM software is preliminary proposed.